Guardian Politics

Another in the Guardian Media Group's series of web sites that look set, at the very least, to take-over the English-speaking world. As we've come to expect, it's the usual sophisticated effort laid-out in the usual Guardian house style. It's basically a spin-off from the main news site but with the added advantage of focusing on politics stories, so you don't have to wade / search through all the other stuff in order to find up-to-the-minute political items...

Self-Government

A nicely-designed site providing all kinds of goodies for both teachers and students - it's just a shame it's a (New Right) libertarian site. However, if you want to understand something about this particular political form there are worse sites around (you'll have to trust me on this one). If you want to know where you stand politically try the world's smallest political quiz - it's quick, painless, and remarkably accurate (but only in the sense it had me pegged...).

The Political Compass

Want to know where you stand politically? Do you see yourself as somewhere to the Left of Obama and Right of TMay (or should that be the other way around)? Confused about your "politicality" (a word I've just made-up...)? Then take the test here and find-out your real position on the political map. There's also some more-useful stuff relating to current UK politics and political alignments...

Tutor2u

Although aimed at students of politics many of the revision topics here are suitable for Sociology students (although the depth and emphasis does tend to be slightly different). The site combines notes with PowerPoint presentations on areas like political parties, voting behaviour and pressure groups (amongst many other things). It's also worth looking around at the general sociology stuff, both GCSE and A-level, the site is developing.

Gov.uk

This used to be DirectGov before it was pointlessly rebranded (once you start paying taxes you'll realise why this is a big deal) and if its public service information you're after - anything from Access (to Work) to Zimmer frames (I kid you not...) - then this is the site for you. The rebranding has, of course, led to a reblanding of the site - out goes all that useless information about sexual, racial or disability discrimination and in comes a lot of shiny new nonsense about Citizenship, How the Government Works and Why you are A Subject, not A Citizen (I made that last one up).

Red Pepper

Advertising itself as the "magazine of the green and radical left", the Red Pepper site contains a couple of sections that may prove useful to A-level students and teachers. The Directory, for example, contains a wide range of links on topics such as Politics, Development, Gender and so forth, while the Archive section contains a selection of articles that have appeared in past issues of the magazine. A wide range of issues (environmentalism, politics, economics, gender, sexuality and so forth) are covered in this section which is worth checking-out for potential classroom / project materials.

UK Politics Page

This is a more-general politics site containing biographical material, election archives, constituency profiles and a massive number of links to political web sites. The site also contains a chat room, news forum and link to Politico's Bookshop (the site sponsor) where, no-doubt, you'll find a range of political books to browse and buy...

Houses of Parliament

The design is pleasant enough and the site does, more-or-less, what it aims to do - keep those interested in such matters up-to-date with what's happening (dude) in both the House of Commons and the House of Lords. The site's quite useful, therefore, if you need to know about the UK parliamentary system - although the material is a little basic and not really aimed at an a-level audience. However, in addition to information about what's going on in Parliament you'll find a huge range of Factsheets here (not all of which are hopeless).